Game Boy War
Game Boy War is a 2009 American family film directed by Chris Columbus, written by David Chisholm, and starring Jeremy Sumpter, Curtis Armstrong, Emma Roberts, David DeLuise, and Jordan Fry. The film follows three teenagers as they travel to California. The older of the three is emotionally withdrawn with a gift for playing video games. Game Boy War is famous for its extensive product placement of video games for the Bandai Namco Entertainment. The film was also well known for being the official introduction to Super Pac-Man in North America. Despite receiving consistently negative reviews, the film has garnered a cult following. Plot Jack Eastwood is a teenager boy suffering from PTSD after his twin sister Jessie drowned two years earlier. He is focused on traveling to San Pedro for unknown reasons, exasperating his mother Christine and stepfather Mr. Bill. Jack's father Marlon lives with his elder sons Isaac and Tyler but does little to help his youngest deal with his grief. Fed up with his broken family, Tyler sneaks Jack out of a mental institute, and they travel on foot for Los Angeles. Issac and Max head out to bring the boys back, in competition with Mr. Patrick, a sleazy child bounty hunter hired by Mr. Bill and Terrie to find Jack. The two parties continually get into fights with each other on the road. At a bus station, Jack and Tyler meet Isabelle Miller, a teenager on her way home to San Diego. They discover that Jack has an innate skill for playing video games. They make an agreement to take Jack to “Video Armageddon”, a gaming tournament being held in Universal Studios Hollywood, with a grand prize of $50,000, splitting the cash if Jack wins. Brick doing so, they hope to prove that Jack doesn't belong in a mental institute. The trio hitchhike cross-country, using Jack’s skills to hustle people out of their money by playing games. They eventually meet Andrew Bacani, a popular but snobbish gamer, who owns a Virtual Boy and shows that he is just as skilled as Jack. He informs Haley that he will also be entering the tournament. Tyler and Isabelle learn that a lunchbox that Jack carries with him contains photos of Jessie and their family. The trio arrive in San Diego, gaining more money with help from Isabelle's trucker friend Brock by having him play at a casino’s Poker table. Jack then begins training on arcade machines with help from the Nintendo Power Line. Patrick tracks Jack down and arrives to retrieve him, but Isabelle spots this and gets him thrown out by screaming and yelling “he touched my breast!”. The teenagers escape to Isabelle's house, revealed to be a rundown trailer. She explains to Tyler that her estranged mother was a gambler and wants her share of the prize money to help her father buy a proper house. Patrick finds Isabelle's home and re-captures Jack, but Haley summons several truckers who barracade Patrick in, beat him, and rescue Jack. Maul then drives the children to the tournament. Jack enters the tournament where he plays Castlevania. He qualifies as a finalist, where the excitable host announces that the final round will involve playing a brand new game. In between rounds, Patrick chases the teenagers once again, but they escape in an elevator back to the tournament. Jack, Andrew, and a third finalist play Super Pac-Man (unreleased at the time in the United States). Cheered on both sides of his family and even by Patrick, Jack wins the tournament at the last second and earns the prize money. Later, the family heads back home, but Jack spots the Korean Bell of Friendship and gets his family to stop. They follow him inside, and Tyler finds Jack looking at his photos of the family, one of which was taken at the tourist trap. They realize that Jack just wanted to leave the mementos of his sister in a place where she was happy. Leaving his lunchbox at the site, Jack goes home with Sam, his brothers, and Isabelle in the back of Max's truck. Isabelle kisses Jack and Tyler's cheeks, then Jack kisses Isabelle's cheek, as she laughs, and they take off into the sunset. Cast * Jeremy Sumpter as Tyler Eastwood * Jordan Fry as Jack Eastwood * Emma Roberts as Isabelle Miller * Daryl Sabara as Isaac Eastwood * David DeLuise as Max Eastwood * Curtis Armstrong as Patrick * Asa Butterfield as Andrew Bacani * Catherine O'Hara as Mrs. Terrie * Denis Leary as Mr. Bill * John Amos as Maul * Robert De Niro as Chris * Mary Chieffo as Diner manager * Lee Arenberg as Armageddon registrar Production During 2008, a shortage of ROM chips, along with Nintendo of America's preparation of a version of Ms. Pac-Man for Western gamers, prevented Nintendo from performing various North American game releases according to their original schedules. The delayed products included Super Pac-Man and, according to Tamagotchi. The delay, however, presented Nintendo with an opportunity to promote the game in a feature film. In 2009, Tom Pollack of Dimension Films approached Namco of America's marketing department about a video game film; inspired by Nintendo video game competitions, Pollack envisioned a video game version of Tommy for younger audiences. Nintendo licensed its products for inclusion in the film. During the film's production, the filmmakers requested and were granted approval from Nintendo regarding the script and portrayal of the company's games. Super Pac-Man was one of the products shown in the film and was used in a final scene involving a video game competition. Despite the film touting itself as featuring the first public reveal of Super Pac-Man, the game had already been released in Japan during the previous year, with U.S. magazines such as Retro Gamer and Super Play having already covered the Japanese version before the film's release. Filming took place between June 5 and July 25, 2009. Kelly-Dawn Helmrich from Camp Cope was nearly cast in the lead role, but due to location conflicts was never officially offered the part.13 In a 2008 reunion,14 as well in an interview in 2014,13 Todd Holland revealed that the original cut of the film was 2.5 hours long and included an extended backstory for Jack and Tyler. The 1965 A64B Autocar severe-duty, Cab Over Engine vocational truck that Maul drives was previously used in the 1987 Sylvester Stallone film Over the Top. When the truckers box Putnam in on the road after he nabs Jimmy, "Hawk Hauling," (the name of Stallone's character Lincoln Hawk's company in Over The Top), can still clearly be seen on the driver's-side door when Maul opens it to exit the cab around the 57:35 minute mark in the film. Following Over The Top and before it finally made its way into Game Boy War, the truck was also used in 1988's Messenger of Death. After filming Game Boy War ''in 2009, it went to sit on a Universal backlot for years until it was called back into service once again, this time for the Lori Petty film ''Tank Girl, where it was repainted silver. A few years later it appeared in another science fiction film, again in its silver repaint. In 2010 it was spotted for sale in truck jackknife stuntman George Sack Jr.'s California scrapyard. Music * Muse - "Undisclosed Desires" * U2 - "Beautiful Day" * Ricky Martin - "Livin' la Vida Loca" * Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" * Rick Astley - "Never Gonna Give You Up" * Aerosmith - "Dream On" * The Verve - "Bitter Sweet Symphony" * Coolio - "Fantastic Voyage" * The Cure - "Friday I'm in Love" * Heart - "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" * Tracy Chapman - "Fast Car" Release Box office Game Boy War ''debuted at No. 5, earning $2,142,525 in the domestic box office. At the end of its run, the film had grossed $14,278,900. Based on an estimated $6 million budget, the film was a moderate box office success.1 '''Critical reception' The film received generally negative reviews from critics. It was widely considered to be little more than a 96-minute commercial for Nintendo games and Universal Studios Hollywood. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "a cynical exploitation film with a lot of commercial plugs" and "insanely overwritten and ineptly filmed". He later called it one of the worst films of 2009. Washington Post staff writer Rita Kempley wrote that the movie was "tacky and moribund", plagiarizing heavily from the 2008 film Tropic Thunder. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 26% score based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. Despite the negative reception, the film was still popular enough to achieve cult film status and to receive a reunion screening from Ain't It Cool News at the Alamo DrafthouseRitz in Austin, Texas, on February 8, 2018. Director Holland and stars Savage and Edwards were in attendance to take questions from fans. Category:Films